Flexibility in base station design is a desirable feature sought by service providers. Base station design flexibility affords the service providers the opportunity to customize base station installations for a variety of circumstances. One manner of achieving flexibility in wireless communication systems based on the well-known code division multiple access (CDMA) technique is to separate a base station's digital components, such as CDMA channel units having a plurality of channel elements, from a base station's radio frequency (RF) components, such as radio units. Separating the digital components from the RF components allows, for example, the RF components to be mounted at the top of a pole and the digital components to be mounted at the base of the pole. A transmission medium, such as an optical fiber, is used to transport data between the RF and digital components.